Ever since I started using computers, I've been baffled by the relative clumsiness of installing applications. Whether we are talking the really old days (launching the Rambo game off a tape), the '90s (running Keen or using installers in Windows 95), or the modern days (still those installers, but now also package management and self-contained applications); it's all relatively cumbersome, and they all have their downsides. I decided to put my money where my mouth is, and come up with my idealistic, utopian method of installing, running, updating, and uninstalling applications.

This might make a good initial design, since you make use of the live queries that we will have in Haiku. Overall it sounds pretty good.

You're right Ryan, this whole thing actually started out as a discussion in #haiku a long time ago. I was just musing aloud at how you could use the attributes and live queries in BFS to manage applications, and from there, this whole idea started to grow.

So it makes sense that my ideas fit Haiku so well.

For one thing I don't see why you need a separate /Settings hierarchy when you could just have /Users/User 1/Settings or in Haiku /boot/home/user/config.

The reason I chose for a separate hierarchy is because I want the /User/User 1 directory to be strictly a directory for the user's documents, movies, photos, pr0n, and so on. I'm someone with a strong inclination towards order and cleanliness, so you can imagine why I'd like to not put settings files into the home directory.

And thanks for the compliments . I've spent a lot of time on this proposal, and I believe I'm only scratching the surface of what attributes+live queries+program bundles can equate to. If you want to discuss this in more detail for whenever the package management plans for R1+1 come up, feel free to contact me, I'd love to participate in that discussion .